Journal of Criminal Justice 36 (2008) 209–216

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Journal of Criminal Justice

Spousal homicides in contemporary Ghana

Mensah Adinkrah ⁎
Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

This study added to the scant extant literature on lethal marital violence in non-Western societies through
the analysis of seventy-two spousal killings that were reported in a Ghanaian daily newspaper during 1990–
2005. The findings showed that husbands were five times more likely to kill a spouse as were wives and that
sexual jealousy and suspicions of infidelity were the most common precipitating factor in uxoricides.
Mariticides were fueled by anger towards a husband who planned to take an additional wife, or by an
instrumental need to replace a husband with a new lover. Analysis of data further revealed a predominance
of poor and working class victims and assailants. The crime often occurred in the common dwelling place of
the couple or a jointly-owned farm, or in cases involving separation, in the wife's natal home or farm. A
plethora of methods were used to perpetrate the murders, including shooting with a gun, hacking with a
cutlass or machete, hitting with a blunt object, and beating with personal weapons.
© 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Introduction marital violence in societies in Africa, Latin America, the Middle

Spousal homicide,1 or the killing of a connubial partner, has been
the subject of numerous scholarly investigations as reflected in the
extensive literature that has accumulated on the topic (e.g., Adinkrah,
1999a, 1999b, 2000, 2007; Alvarez & Bachman, 2003; Barnard, Vera,
Vera, & Newman, 1982; Bean, 1992; Brewer & Paulsen, 1999; Browne,
1987, 1997; Campbell, 1992; Chimbos, 1978, 1998; Daly & Wilson,
1988; Goetting, 1989; Gondolf & Shestakov, 1997a, 1997b; Howard,
1986; Mann, 1988; Mercy & Saltzman, 1989; Parker, Steeves, Anderson,
& Moran, 2004; Rasche, 1993; Riedel & Best, 1998; Rude, 1999; Russell
& Harmes, 2001; Shackelford, 2001; Showalter, Bonnie, & Roddy, 1980;
Stout, 1991a, 1991b; Wilson & Daly, 1992, 1993; Wilson, Daly, & Wright,
1993; Wilson, Johnson, & Daly, 1995).
The burgeoning literature has undoubtedly contributed to an
understanding of the nature, extent, and etiology of spousal
homicide. A major limitation of this literature, however, is its
nearly exclusive focus on Western industrialized societies such as
the United States (e.g., Block & Christakos, 1995; Riedel & Best,
1998; Stout & Brown, 1995), Canada (e.g., Daly & Wilson, 1988;
Silverman & Kennedy, 1993; Wilson, Daly, & Danielle, 1995), the
United Kingdom (e.g., Bland, 1992; Lees, 1992; Wilson, Johnson et
al., 1995), and Australia (e.g., Allen, 1982; Bacon & Lansdowne,
1982; Polk & Ranson, 1991). Presently, only a handful of studies
(e.g., Adinkrah, 1999a, 1999b, 2000, 2007; Bohannan, 1960; Fallers
& Fallers, 1960; Mushanga, 1978; Rude, 1999) have examined lethal
⁎ Tel.: +1 989 774 3367; fax: +1 989 774 1844.
E-mail address: adink1m@cmich.edu.
East, and Oceania.
The relative paucity of empirical studies on spousal homicide in
non-Western societies is regrettable because it hinders efforts to
achieve a broader understanding of intimate-partner homicide as a
phenomenon. For example, it needs to be determined to what extent
conclusions derived from studies of spousal homicides in Western
industrialized societies are applicable to the rest of the world.
Conducting research on lethal conjugal violence in non-Western
societies will provide a comparative perspective that is vital if
homicide scholars are to realize their quest to understand homicide
more fully and formulate a conceptually broad and cross-culturally
valid theory of lethal violence. As one analyst puts it: “Scholars in the
field of homicide research should make an effort to widen their scope
of interest beyond the American scene…In addition to increasing our
knowledge of homicide studies in different countries, research such as
this would also allow American/Western-based theories and meth-
odologies to be tested in other countries and other cultural contexts”
(Smith, 2000, p. 10).
To fill the acknowledged gap in the literature and contribute
towards a fuller understanding of the phenomenon, this study
examined spousal homicide incidents in Ghana, West Africa, a non-
Western society. Specifically, the article analyzes the scope and nature
of spousal homicides, the socio-demographic characteristics of
spousal murderers and their victims, the temporal and spatial aspects
of the crime, modus operandi, co-offender patterns, motivations for
offending, and circumstances leading up to the murders, as well as the
criminal justice outcomes. The hope is that this research will not only
contribute to a broader perspective and greater understanding of
spousal homicides, but will also provide an impetus for similar
research in other non-Western societies.

0047-2352/$ – see front matter © 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2008.04.002
210 M. Adinkrah / Journal of Criminal Justice 36 (2008) 209–216
Background
The author's interest in spousal homicides in contemporary Ghana
developed in 2002 while conducting research on gender violence in the
country. During the first quarter of that year, a spate of ghastly wife-
murders rocked this West African nation of twenty million people.
Between February 12 and April 27, 2002, there were thirteen uxoricidal
murders, six attempted wife-killings, and many cases of excessive life-
threatening wife-beatings reported in the media (see Archer, 2002;
“Spousal Killings,” 2002). As each successive case garnered front-page
newspaper coverage as well as massive reportage and commentary in
the electronic media, the Ghanaian public became increasingly alarmed
that an epidemic of domestic violence was occurring in the society. In
response, pro-feminist activists, religious leaders, politicians, and other
influential citizens appealed to perpetrators of spousal abuse to end the
carnage (see Archer, 2002; “Spouse Killers Not Human Beings,” 2002;
“Wives Not Punching Bags,” 2001). Concurrently, there was a clarion call
to behavioral scientists in the country to conduct relevant social science
research in order to understand the phenomenon and make recom-
mendations to curtail its incidence (Sarpong, 2002). While the academic
community has since responded with a few empirical studies that
examined violence against women in general (e.g., Amoakohene, 2004;
Takyi & Mann, 2006), to date, there has been no systematic research that
focused exclusively on lethal marital violence, making this research the
first such study in Ghana.
Previous research on spousal homicides
Findings from extant studies of spousal homicide (e.g., Chimbos,
1978; Daly & Wilson, 1988; Gondolf & Shestakov, 1997a, 1997b;
Kellerman & Mercy, 1992; Mercy & Saltzman, 1989; Polk & Ranson,
1991; Silverman & Kennedy, 1993) indicate that there is a higher
incidence of husband-perpetrated spousal homicides (uxoricides)
than wife-perpetrated partner-killings (mariticides) and that women
are at greater risk of lethal victimization by husbands than men are
from their wives. For instance, Mercy and Saltzman (1989) observed
from an analysis of 16,595 spousal homicides in the United States that
females were 1.3 times more likely to be murdered by a spouse than
were males. In their Canadian study, Daly and Wilson (1988) found
that men were four times as likely to kill their spouses as were
women. Polk and Ranson's (1991) study of intimate partner homicide
in Australia yielded a similar pattern where twenty-seven out of the
thirty-eight cases of spousal killings were perpetrated by husbands.
Regarding the socioeconomic status of victims and offenders in
spousal homicide cases, prior research (e.g., Chimbos, 1998; Daly &
Wilson, 1988; Goetting, 1995; Gondolf & Shestakov, 1997b; Mann, 1988)
demonstrates that even though marital violence cuts across all socio-
economic, occupational, ethnic, and age groupings, spousal slayings are
more likely to occur among the lower economic strata than among the
affluent. For example, based on an analysis of spousal homicide
incidents in Greece, Chimbos (1998) reported that victims and offenders
were mostly working class Greeks. Gondolf and Shestakov (1997b)
reported a similar finding regarding the low socioeconomic background
of spousal homicide victims and assailants in Russia.
Some research (e.g., Daly & Wilson, 1988; Mercy & Saltzman, 1989;
Shackelford, 2001) suggests that in those conjugal relationships
where there is a substantial age difference between the partners,
the parties are at greater risk of being slain by their intimate partners
than are persons in marital relationships where such age differential is
absent. For example, Wilson and Daly (1992) observed from their
analysis of Canadian data that “spousal homicide rates increased as
the couple's age disparity increased. This was true for both wives and
husbands, regardless of who was the older party” (p. 200). Similar
findings were reported by Mercy and Saltzman (1989) in their analysis
of spousal homicide data in the United States. They noted: “Among
couples where the husband was two or more years younger than the
wife, the spouse homicide rate was 5.0 per 100,000 compared with 2.6
among couples whose ages were within 1 year of each other and 3.6
among those couples where the wife was two or more years younger
than the husband” (p. 596).
Previous studies of spousal killings (e.g., Barnard et al.,1982; Browne,
Williams, & Dutton, 1999; Goetting, 1987) indicated that spousal
homicide victims and their attackers typically shared a common
residence at the time of the lethal incident. This residence was usually
the physical setting or location for the homicide. For example, over 91
percent of female-perpetrated spousal homicides in Goetting's (1987)
Detroit study occurred in private residences, usually the domicile shared
by the assailant and the victim. Comparing lethal marital homicide by
men with those perpetrated by women against their spouses, Browne
et al. (1999) noted that “women rarely track down and kill partners from
whom they are separated. Partner homicides by women most often
occur in the couple's shared residence or at the woman's private
residence if an estranged partner threatens her there” (p. 68).
Why do some men and women kill connubial partners that they have
sworn to love, honor, and cherish in sickness and in health? Previous
studies of husbands who killed their wives (e.g., Chimbos, 1978; Daly &
Wilson, 1988) indicated that a substantial proportion of uxoricides were
triggered or fueled by sexual jealousy, possessiveness, and suspicions of
wifely infidelity. Another significant risk factor in the perpetration of
uxoricide is a pattern of coercion, control, and dominance by husbands
toward wives (Alvarez & Bachman, 2003; Daly & Wilson, 1988). In many
instances, uxoricide is a tragic end to a husband's protracted physical,
verbal, and emotional abuse of the wife-victim. Prior research (e.g.,
Alvarez & Bachman, 2003; Browne, Williams, & Dutton, 1999; Menzies,
2005; Wilson & Daly, 1993; Wilson et al., 1993) also suggested that
uxoricide risk is higher for women seeking separation or divorce from
their husbands since “men often pursue, stalk, and kill spouses that have
left them” (Gauthier & Bankston, 2004, p. 103). In these cases, uxoricide
perpetrators are guided by the philosophy “If I can't have her, then no-
one can” (Daly & Wilson, 1988, p. 197).
Prior research on spousal homicides suggested that when women kill
their husbands, it is often in response to a pattern of physical abuse
suffered at the hands of their mates (Barnard et al., 1982; Browne, 1987,
1997; Chimbos, 1978; Cole, Fisher, & Cole, 1968; Daly & Wilson, 1988;
Goetting, 1995; Howard, 1986; Jurik & Winn, 1990; Mann, 1992; Mercy &
Saltzman,1989; Polk & Ranson,1991; Roberts,1996; Stout,1991b; Stout &
Brown, 1995; Walker, 1989). For example, in the United States, female-
perpetrated marital homicides are typically described as desperate
measures either to terminate persistent physical abuse or to avert
immediate threats to their lives (Browne,1987,1997; Jurik & Winn,1990).
Other research (e.g., Adinkrah, 2000; Polk & Ranson, 1991) suggests
additional motivations for offending. For example, empirical research on
female-perpetrated spousal homicides in Fiji (Adinkrah, 2000) revealed
that in some instances, wives who killed their husbands were driven by
self-interested or instrumental goals, either the continuation of an
extramarital relationship, for pecuniary gain, or both. In the former cases,
the wife typically colluded with her paramour to plot and execute the
crime. Polk and Ranson (1991) also reported a case where “a woman used
homicide as the method for discarding her current partner in order to
take up a relationship with another male” (p. 20).
Are spousal homicides premeditated acts methodically planned or
spontaneous acts of aggression? Available literature suggests that
intimate-partner killings range from cold-blooded killing by a hired
assassin to those in which the defendant killed a spouse in the heat of
anger. Many scholars (e.g., Goetting, 1995; Mercy & Saltzman, 1989)
have noted that in the United States, wife-to-husband killings are
typically unintentional or unplanned self-defensive killings by
battered women desperate to extricate themselves from violent and
life-threatening abusive situations.
The extant literature on husband-to-wife slayings indicates that in
the majority of uxoricides, there is no evidence of conscious planning
or premeditation. Many wife-slayings are assaultive behaviors that
 M. Adinkrah / Journal of Criminal Justice 36 (2008) 209–216
turned lethal in which the original intent was to inflict physical injury
or pain on a perceived errant, transgressive, or misbehaving wife.
Some previous research found a sizable proportion of victims of
female lethal violence to be “latent” or “predisposed” victims (Bacon &
Lansdowne, 1982; Hoffman-Bustamante, 1973; Rasko, 1976). Latent or
predisposed victims are “those who are not able to defend themselves
because of their general state” (Rasko, 1976, p. 398). These include
children, the infirm, the severely ill, the inebriated, and sleeping
victims. In a study of 140 victims of female-perpetrated homicides in
Hungary, Rasko's (1976) data revealed that “61 percent of the victims
could defend themselves only to a limited extent or not at all” (p. 398).
Also, in six of the sixteen Australian cases (37.5 percent) studied by
Bacon and Lansdowne (1982), “the husband was asleep at the time his
wife killed him” (p. 71). The high proportion of predisposed or latent
victims in female-perpetrated homicide is attributable to the greater
degree of physical vulnerability of these categories of victims, all of
whom are physically vulnerable against an average adult female
assailant. According to Rasko (1976), because of men's average size
and physical strength, “the female killer knows very well what the
balance of power is when it comes to attacking her husband or lover.
The sleeping situation is a propitious one” (p. 398).
With regard to co-offending patterns in homicide perpetration,
prior studies of lethal marital violence have found that husbands and
wives typically commit their crime alone. For example, Goetting
(1987) found that 98.2 percent of the marital homicides perpetrated
by women involved one victim and one offender.
Spouse killers employ a variety of methods in the commission of
their crimes. These include shooting with a firearm, stabbing with a
knife or a sharp instrument, hitting with a blunt object, beating with
personal weapons (e.g., hands and feet), and poisoning (Chimbos, 1998;
Lundsgaarde, 1977; Miethe, McCorkle, & Listwan, 2006). Research
conducted in Western industrialized societies (e.g., Chimbos, 1998;
Lundsgaarde, 1977) suggests that shooting with a firearm is the most
common method of spousal killing for both sexes. In the United States
and Canada, the most common method of killing in spousal homicide
cases is shooting with a firearm (Goetting, 1991; Lundsgaarde, 1977;
Mercy & Saltzman, 1989; Silverman & Kennedy, 1993). Other common
means of spousal homicide perpetration are stabbing with a knife, sharp
or cutting instrument, beating with personal weapons, and strangula-
tion or throttling. For example, Mercy and Saltzman (1989) observed,
from their study of spousal homicides committed in the United States
over a ten-year period, that in 71.5 percent of the cases, a firearm was the
weapon employed. They also found that males and females were equally
disposed to the use of firearms to perpetrate spousal homicides. Other
common methods included stabbing with a knife and beating with
personal weapons. In a study of fifty-six females arrested for marital
homicides in Detroit during 1982 and 1983, Goetting (1987) found that
females relied on guns for carrying out homicides in 55.4 percent of the
cases; another 41.4 percent of husband-victims in the study died of stab
wounds inflicted by their wives. In Browne's (1987) study, 81 percent of
battered women employed guns and 7 percent used knives to attack
their husbands in completed or attempted homicide cases. Stout's
(1991b) study of women incarcerated in a Missouri prison for spousal
homicide provided further support that females tend toward the
utilization of guns to perpetrate spousal homicides: fourteen of the
eighteen women used firearms to commit the murder.
Studies of lethal violence in intimate relationships revealed that
some spousal killers commit suicide immediately following the
homicide, typically at or near the scene of the crime (Adinkrah,
2003; Daly & Wilson, 1988; Morton, Runyan, Moracco, & Butts, 1998).
The post-homicidal suicide literature shows a sex differential in the
pattern of post-homicide suicide, indicating that murder-suicides
among homicidal wives are extremely rare (Daly & Wilson, 1988;
Goetting, 1995; Gondolf & Shestakov, 1997b; Showalter et al., 1980).
How does the criminal justice system respond to homicidal wives
and husbands? The existing literature suggests contradictory findings
211
(e.g., Barnard et al., 1982; Browne, 1987; Daly & Wilson, 1988; Stout &
Brown, 1995). One group of researchers found that female assailants
were punished more severely than males. According to Browne
(1987), women charged in the death of a spouse “often face harsher
penalties than men who kill their mates” (p. 11). Stout and Brown
(1995) also observed evidence of judicial bias in the sentencing of
assailants in spousal homicides. In an exploratory study of fifty-one
perpetrators of spousal homicide incarcerated in Missouri prisons, the
authors found that 50 percent of the convicted women received
sentences of fifty years' imprisonment without the possibility of
parole, or life without parole. Of the male offenders who killed their
spouses, half of the twenty-one offenders received life sentences with
the possibility of parole.
Other researchers (e.g., Barnard et al., 1982; Daly & Wilson, 1988)
identified precisely the converse pattern. Barnard et al. (1982)
reported that the courts tend to impose more lenient sentences
upon women convicted of spousal murder than men convicted of
similar crimes. They qualified, however, that “the different treatment
of these offenders is a reflection of the type of homicide in which each
gender engages more often. In fact, wives are more frequently
provoked by their husbands than vice versa…a circumstance that
mitigates the seriousness of the offense” (Barnard et al., 1982, p. 277).
As Daly and Wilson (1988) noted, “Police, prosecutors, judges, and
juries are regularly confronted with evidence of the man's role as
initial aggressor, and the result is that husband killers are generally
penalized much less severely than wife killers. Women who kill their
spouses in North America are substantially more likely to get off scot-
free than are men, and if convicted they receive lighter sentences”
(p. 199).
Ghana: the research setting
Located in West Africa, and sharing borders with the Ivory Coast to
the west, Togo to the east, Burkina Faso to the north, and the Atlantic
Ocean to the south, Ghana is a country with a population of
approximately twenty million people, about 65 percent of whom
reside in rural areas. About 60 percent of the work force is employed in
agriculture and fishing, and 15 percent in industry; the remaining 25
percent are employed in services, primarily trading, transportation,
and communication. For the year 2000, Gross Domestic Product per
capita was estimated at $1,900. In 1992, roughly 31.4 percent of the
population was living below the established poverty line. In 1997, the
country's unemployment rate was estimated at 20 percent. The
average life expectancy is 59.3 years for males and 62.9 years for
females. The overall adult literacy rate is estimated at 64.5 percent
with a rate of 75.9 percent for males and 53.5 percent for females
(Ghana Statistical Service, 2002).
Ghanaian females occupy a subordinate social status vis-à-vis
males in virtually all social domains. There is a general cultural
expectation that women demonstrate respect, passivity, submissive-
ness, and acquiescence toward men, particularly with respect to
husbands' wishes and demands. Gender roles are organized along sex
lines. Men are regarded as the breadwinners of the family. Women are
responsible for housework, cooking, and child care, and while women
are increasingly working outside the home for economic reasons,
fulfillment of their domestic role is regarded as their primary
obligation. Males tend to subscribe to a premarital and postmarital
sexual double standard. Polygyny, or marriage of a man to two or more
wives simultaneously, is a culturally permitted practice among all
ethnic groups in the society. Although attitudes are changing, for
many men, having multiple wives is denotative of male power,
prestige, and virility. The 1998 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey
revealed that 23 percent of married women in the country were in a
polygynous union in 1998, compared with 28 percent in 1993 (Ghana
Statistical Service, 1999). While divorce is generally frowned upon,
remarriage is more common for men than for women. A woman is
212 M. Adinkrah / Journal of Criminal Justice 36 (2008) 209–216
expected to stay in an unhappy, unfulfilling marriage rather than risk
the stigma that accompanies divorce. Physical chastisement of wives
by husbands occurs frequently, as many men consider it their marital
right and obligation to “discipline” and control their wives (Amoako-
hene, 2004; Appiah & Cusack, 1999; Minkah-Premo, 2001; Takyi &
Mann, 2006). Although there are laws that sanction domestic
violence, many cases go unreported to law enforcement authorities.
Common reasons for wife battering include suspected infidelity and
disagreements over domestic chores, child rearing, or financial
matters. Victims suffer a range of injuries as a result of victimization
at the hands of husbands. Crime statistics indicate that the number of
murder cases rose from 275 in 1990 to 401 in 2002. More recently,
media reports (e.g., Archer, 2002) and scholarly works (e.g., Adinkrah,
2004, 2005) have highlighted cases of uxoricide and other types of
femicide as forms of lethal assault gaining ascendancy in the society.
Research methods and data sources
The data for this article were collected in Ghana during the
summer of 2006. Given the lack of comprehensive and reliable official
homicide data,2 the study relied on a content analysis of homicide case
stories from the Daily Graphic as the primary source of information
about spousal homicide cases in the country.3 Founded in 1950, the
Daily Graphic is one of only two national dailies in the country and has
the largest circulation and readership in Ghana. An independent
readership survey conducted in 2001 revealed that the Daily Graphic
was the most widely read newspaper in the country (see “Graphic Still
No. 1,” 2001). The paper's favorable standing as a reputable news
source is attributed to its accuracy of reporting and depth of news
coverage. Trained investigative reporters from the newspaper are
usually at crime scenes and in attendance at criminal trials which
gives them access to reliable crime data in the reportage of crime
stories. For the purpose of this research, all stories on spousal
homicide appearing in the Daily Graphic during the period 1990 to
2005 were systematically analyzed to identify the socio-demographic
characteristics of offenders and victims, precipitating circumstances,
the mode of killing, and the criminal justice outcomes in each case. It
should be noted that in Ghana, with a homicide rate of about 2.0 per
100,000, lethal violence is relatively rare and therefore considered an
extremely newsworthy topic. Homicide stories receive extensive
publicity in the local print and electronic media.
Results
Extent of spousal homicides
The data showed that between January 1, 1990 and December 31,
2005, seventy-two incidents of spousal homicide were reported in the
Daily Graphic. Female-perpetrated spousal homicides accounted for a
significantly lower percentage of these cases. In all, sixty men killed
their wives, while twelve women killed their husbands. That is, men
were five times more likely to kill their wives than wives were to kill
their husbands.
The actual number of spousal slayings that occurred in Ghana
during the study period, however, could not be determined and it is
highly probable that the seventy-two reported spousal homicides is
an underestimation of the exact number of spousal homicides that
occurred in the country during the period. First, the Daily Graphic
might not have reported all instances of spousal homicide. Second,
some of the spousal killings might have been misclassified as
accidents, suicides, mortality from illnesses, or deaths due to
undetermined causes. At present, many deaths in Ghana are not
autopsied. Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain the exact cause of
death in many instances. Third, because murder is a capital offense in
Ghana, spousal killers may go to extensive lengths to conceal their
crime.
Public reaction to spousal homicides
The data demonstrated a recurrent tendency for spousal slayings
to generate substantial public interest and attention. This was
particularly true for wife-perpetrated spousal homicides. Several
factors explain why homicidal wives receive a great deal of attention.
In Ghana, women are typically victims rather than perpetrators of
spousal homicide and nonfatal assaults against intimate partners.
Judging from public commentary on the crimes, the female spousal
killer is perceived as an aberration and her crime a serious anomaly. To
the average Ghanaian, the homicidal wife defies the traditional image
of females as less aggressive than males. Women who were involved
in extramarital affairs when they killed their husbands received the
greatest public scrutiny and engendered the greatest public interest;
many people considered it unthinkable for a woman to conceive a plot
to kill a husband in order to be with a new lover. For these reasons,
from the moment of initial arrest of the assailant to the time of
sentencing, each phase of the case was marked by the convergence of
massive crowds upon the local police station and the trial court. The
Daily Graphic's description of the case below is instructive:
An exceptionally large, noisy and uncontrollable crowd which
besieged the Akyem Oda Circuit Court on Friday, October 18,
disrupted proceedings at the court and forced the presiding judge
to leave the court premises for home. The over 5,000 people had
traveled from the length and breadth of the country to catch a
glimpse of the 31-year-old teacher who allegedly burnt her
husband to death. The deafening uproar reached its zenith around
10:00 a.m. when the police escorted the defendant to the court
room. (Kyei-Boateng, 1991, p. 3)
As with other forms of intrafamilial killings, spousal homicide cases
in Ghana engender extensive attention in the local media, typically
receiving front-page newspaper coverage and stimulating public
discussion in the electronic media. Journalists typically follow spousal
killing cases from the initial report to the final disposition of the case,
regularly issuing updates of arrests, courtroom appearances of witnesses
and suspects, and excerpts from trial proceedings. The heinous nature of
such crimes invariably guarantees a response in the “Letters to the
Editor” columns of local newspapers, editorial commentaries, and other
public forums. In 2002 when a spate of uxoricide cases occurred in
succession over a two-and-a-half month period, the Ghanaian public
responded with shock, indignation, and outrage. Following publicity in
the major national newspapers, radio talk shows became open forums
for readers to debate the “best” or “most appropriate” strategies for
curtailing interspousal aggression (“Spousal Killings,” 2002).
Socio-demographic characteristics of victims and assailants
Information regarding the ages of the assailants and victims
were available in seven of the twelve female-perpetrated spousal
homicides. Homicidal wives ranged in age from twenty-eight to fifty
years old while their husband-victims ranged in age from thirty to
sixty years old. Records were also available for the ages of thirty-two
of the sixty uxoricide victims and forty-five of the sixty uxoricide
assailants. Uxoricide victims ranged in age from twenty-two to sixty
years old with a mean age of 37.8 years. Uxoricide assailants ranged
in age from twenty-one years to seventy years old with a mean age of
42.7 years. The remarkable age difference between females and
males involved in spousal homicides stems from the fact that in
Ghana, women generally marry at a younger age than men and
gerontogamy, usually involving the marriage of an older man to a
relatively younger woman, occurs regularly in the society. In the
most extreme case of age differential between an uxoricidal husband
and his wife, a sixty-five-year-old husband killed his thirty-seven-
year-old wife.
 M. Adinkrah / Journal of Criminal Justice 36 (2008) 209–216 213

Most of the spousal homicide cases involved poor and working Table 1
class families. Uxoricidal husbands were typically employed in Selected characteristics of uxoricides and mariticides

occupations of low socioeconomic status (e.g., apprenticed artisans, Characteristic Uxoricides Mariticides
small-scale peasant farmers, and menial laborers). Like their assai- Age
lants, uxoricidal victims were typically poor or working class (e.g., Mean age of victims 37.8 years 42.5 years
housewives, small-scale peasant farmers, street hawkers, market Mean age of assailants 42.7 years 38.6 years
Mean age difference 4.9 years 3.9 years
vendors, and seamstresses). Similarly, homicidal wives and their
victims were of low socioeconomic status. In terms of ethnic Location of cases
background, victims and offenders in spousal homicide cases Urban 28.3% 0.0%
generally shared the same ethnicity. This is attributable to the Rural 71.7% 100.0%
prevalence of intra-ethnic marriage in Ghana. Total 100.0% 100.0%

Physical setting
Spatial and temporal aspects Hospital 0.0% 16.7%
Couple's home 58.3% 83.3%
With reference to the spatial location of spousal homicides, Estranged victim's home 10.0% 0.0%
Couple's farm 10.0% 0.0%
analysis of the data showed that wife killings and husband killings
Estranged victim's farm 11.7% 0.0%
were remarkably similar in that they typically occurred in villages and Public setting 5.0% 0.0%
small towns (see Table 1). For example, 71.7 percent of wife killings Other 5.0% 0.0%
occurred in villages and small towns, while the remaining 28.3 Total 100.0% 100.0%
percent occurred in cities and other large towns such as Accra, Tema,
Modus operandi
and Sekondi-Takoradi. Notably, all twelve husband-killings occurred
Hacking with machete 27.0% 8.3%
in rural or semi-urban settings in the country; none occurred in a Shooting with firearm 28.0% 8.3%
major city or metropolitan area. Beating with hands, feet, etc. 18.0% 16.7%
Concerning the setting of the homicide event, the data showed that Hitting with blunt object 10.0% 17.0%
Poisoning 0.0 42.0%
the overwhelming majority of spousal homicides occurred at or near
Strangling 8.3% 0.0%
the shared dwelling of both the victim and the assailant. For example, Stabbing with knife 5.0% 0.0%
ten out of twelve cases, or 83 percent of the wife-to-husband murders, Other 3.7% 7.7%
occurred in the home of the couple. The two remaining killings Total 100.0 100.0%
occurred at a hospital and involved poisoning the food of a victim who
Alleged motives
was hospitalized and receiving medical treatment. Regarding uxor-
Suspicion of infidelity 31.6% 0.0%
icidal killings, 58.3 percent of wife murders occurred in the couple's Disputes over money, childcare, etc. 30.0% 0.0%
home, 21.7 percent occurred on the couple's or the estranged wife's Threat of divorce 13.3% 0.0%
farm, while another 10 percent occurred in the estranged wife's natal Defying spouse's orders 6.7% 0.0%
Disputes over sex 3.3% 0.0%
home. Five percent of the uxoricides occurred in a public setting,
Husband married another woman 0.0% 25.0%
including one incident in a church during a religious service. Wife wanted to be with another man 0.0% 25.0%
Two out of the twelve incidents of female-perpetrated spousal Self-defense 0.0% 25.0%
homicide occurred at night while the husband lay sleeping. In one Retaliation against humiliation 0.0% 25.0%
case, a sleeping husband was fatally attacked with a machete by his Other 6.8% 0.0%
Unknown 8.3% 0.0%
wife, later dying from the injuries. In another incident, a sleeping
Total 100.0% 100.0%
husband was shot to death at night by his wife's paramour through
the couple's window which had been deliberately pried open by the Post-homicide suicide
adulterous wife who was a co-conspirator in the murder. Husband- Completed suicide 21.7% 0.0%
Attempted suicide 3.3% 0.0%
victims who were poisoned to death by their wives had food served to
No attempt 75.0% 100.0%
them at dinner in the evening hours and later expired at the local Total 100.0% 100.0%
hospital.

Co-offender patterns
Two of the twelve women who killed their husbands enlisted the
assistance of male collaborators in the commission of the offense. In
each of these instances, the accomplice was the assailant's paramour
who actively assisted in both the planning and execution of the
murder plot. This tendency of female perpetrators to collaborate with
other persons in the commission of spousal homicide was virtually
absent in uxoricide cases.
Method of killing
The data revealed significant differences between male and
female-perpetrated homicides in the modus operandi used to commit
the crime (see Table 1). The methods employed by husbands in the
perpetration of uxoricide included bludgeoning with a machete
(27 percent), shooting with a firearm (28 percent), beating with
hands and feet (18 percent), hitting with a blunt object such as a club
or iron bar (10 percent), strangulation with a cord or by hands (8.3
percent), and stabbing with a knife (5 percent).
Analysis of mariticide cases revealed that the most common
method for perpetrating the crime was poisoning the victim's food,
which occurred in five out of the twelve cases (42 percent). Another 17
percent of husband-murders were accomplished via burning, while in
another 17 percent, the wife killed the husband by striking him with a
blunt object. In one other case, the wife killed her sleeping husband
with a machete while in another incident, a male accomplice shot the
sleeping husband with a gun. In two cases, the husbands sustained
fatal injuries when their wives pulled their testes during a physical
struggle.
Motivations, contexts, and circumstances surrounding the crime
Analysis of data showed a wide range of motivations for
perpetrators of spousal homicide. In 25 percent of the mariticides
studied, wives plotted and killed their husbands in response to the
husbands' plans to wed other women. In another one-quarter of the
cases, wives killed their husbands in collusion with their paramours to
allow them to carry on an unfettered extramarital affair. In another 25
percent of the cases, wives killed husbands in self-defense to avert
214 M. Adinkrah / Journal of Criminal Justice 36 (2008) 209–216
marital rape. In the remaining one-quarter of the cases, wives who felt
they had been publicly humiliated by their husbands assaulted them
during an altercation that led to their death.
The predominant motive for uxoricidal killings was a husband's
suspicion that his wife had been unfaithful to him. This occurred in 31.6
percent of the cases surveyed. The second most common trigger in
uxoricidal killings was the wife's threat to divorce her husband, which
occurred in 13.3 percent of all the uxoricides. In 6.7 percent of the cases,
husbands lethally assaulted their wives for what the assailants
characterized as the wives' audacious challenges to their domestic
authority. In two (3.3 percent) of the sixty uxoricide cases, husbands
lethally attacked wives who refused to submit to demands for sexual
intercourse. In some instances, wife-murders appeared to stem from
anxieties, frustrations, and stresses associated with unemployment or
precarious employment, poverty, and financial strains that beleaguer
the working class. Several uxoricidal homicides were preceded by
disputes over money. Some of these cases involved men who appeared
to feel emasculated in the face of their wives' relative financial success
and killed out of a sense of restoring the power, authority, and
dominance they seemed to regard as under threat.
Spontaneous action or evidence of prior planning
The data showed that the majority of mariticides fit the formal
definition of “murder” as they constituted willful, premeditated killings.
In eight out of the twelve cases, the wife planned the crime with
fastidiousness and executed it meticulously. For example, the five wives
who killed via poisoning employed stealth and extensive planning in
acquiring the poison and in lacing the food prepared for the victim. In
another premeditated mariticide, the wife stockpiled a flammable
substance under the couple's bed prior to the homicide event, then
pulled out the container, dousing the husband with the contents, and
setting the man alight with a match that she had on hand. The two cases
in which the wife conspired with her paramour to physically eliminate
the husband also had all the trappings of conspiracy and prior planning.
Most of the uxoricides appeared to be spontaneous, unplanned
events in which physical violence towards a spouse escalated into a
fatal confrontation. Some degree of planning was evident in cases
involving marital separation and contemplation of divorce by the
victim. In these cases, the husband typically stalked his victim before
isolating, confronting, and then killing her.
Latent or predisposed victims
Homicidal wives had a greater tendency than homicidal husbands
to kill latent or predisposed victims. Five of the twelve husband-
victims in mariticidal incidents fit the description of latent or
predisposed victims. For instance, two of the husbands were ill and
hospitalized when their wives poisoned their food. In addition, three
of the husbands were asleep when they were murdered. In these three
cases, one was fatally shot with a gun by his wife's paramour and
accomplice, another was set ablaze, while the other was attacked with
a machete. It is important to mention that in five of the twelve cases,
unsuspecting husbands died when they consumed food that had been
laced with poison by their wives.
Post-homicidal suicide
Table 1 displays information regarding the completed and
attempted suicides of assailants following the murder of a spouse.
Thirteen (21.7 percent) of the sixty men who killed their wives
committed suicide immediately or shortly after murdering their
wives. Two (3.3 percent) other homicidal husbands attempted suicide
but were unsuccessful in their quest to terminate their lives. None of
the twelve women who killed their husbands either attempted or
successfully completed a suicide following the murder of the husband.
Dispositional outcomes
What types of legal penalties do Ghanaian courts impose on men
and women who kill their conjugal partners? According to Act 29,
Section 46 of the Criminal Code of Ghana (1960), “whoever commits
murder shall be liable to suffer death.” Information regarding
penalties for murderous spouses was available in only two cases of
wife-perpetrated spousal murder. Assailants in both cases received
the death sentence in response to a murder conviction. One case
involved poisoning where the wife poisoned her husband's food in
revenge for his having taken a second wife. In the other case, a woman
set her husband alight with a flammable substance that she had
concealed under the couple's bed.
Dispositional outcomes were available for only five of the forty-
eight (10.4) uxoricide cases where the husband did not commit
suicide following the murder. In each of these five cases, the husband
was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging.
The absence of information regarding the dispositional outcome
of the majority of cases may be attributable to two major factors.
First, the judicial outcome of some of these cases may not have been
reported in the Daily Graphic. Second, it should be noted that in
Ghana, there is a significant lapse between the time of initial
apprehension of a homicide suspect and the final resolution of the
homicide case. All homicide cases are routinely referred by law
enforcement authorities to the Attorney General's Department in
Accra for legal advice and it is not uncommon for a case to be held in
abeyance in the department for ten years or longer. During this time,
criminal suspects languish in jail or prison. Indeed, a recent official
report noted that approximately 30 percent of Ghana's prison inmate
population consisted of pretrial detainees, some of whom “had been
detained for over six to seven years without a single court
appearance” (see “Commission Orders 750,” 2004).
Discussion and conclusion
This study examined spousal homicides in contemporary Ghana. It
provided a case study of the who, where, when, how, and why of spousal
killings in one non-Western society. The data from this study were in
many ways consistent with the major findings in the extant literature.
First, it was observed that in Ghana, as elsewhere, mariticides represent
a small fraction of all spousal homicides; conversely, men are
disproportionately represented as assailants in spousal homicide data.
Second, consistent with studies of female-perpetrated spousal killings in
other societies, this research has noted that Ghanaian female spousal-
killers tended to slay “latent” or “predisposed” victims. As noted
previously, predisposed victims are those who are in a physical state or
condition that renders them incapable of defending themselves against
an assailant. Third, the results of the present investigation showed that
in Ghana, as in Western industrialized societies, men are more likely
than women to commit suicide following the murder of a spouse.
Fourth, the Ghanaian data supported the findings of earlier research
(e.g., Daly & Wilson, 1988) indicating that spousal homicide risk is
greater in relationships characterized by a higher age differential
between the spouses. Fifth, the data showed that violent retributive
responses to cuckoldry and suspicions of infidelity are not unique to men
in Western industrialized nations, but a notable feature of uxoricides in
Ghana. Sixth, the research data for this study showed that just as in
Western industrialized societies, in Ghana the perpetrators and victims
in spousal murders both tend to be of low socioeconomic status.
Seventh, the findings of the present study indicated the prevalence of
the couple's home as the location for spousal homicides, coinciding with
spousal homicide data in Western societies. Regarding the methods of
homicide commission, extant studies on Western industrialized
societies indicated that the vast bulk of spousal homicides—whether
committed by males or females—were perpetrated with firearms. This
finding was unsupported by the Ghanaian data. While seventeen out of
 M. Adinkrah / Journal of Criminal Justice 36 (2008) 209–216
the sixty (28 percent) uxoricides were accomplished with firearms, the
mariticide data revealed only one shooting death in twelve (8 percent)
cases. It should be noted, however, that in Ghana, stringent official
restrictions regarding firearm possession and use make firearms less
readily available than in such societies as the United States.
The relatively high incidence of uxoricide vis-à-vis mariticidal
incidents in Ghana is related to the ubiquity of wife battering in the
society. According to some estimates, one in three Ghanaian women is
a victim of violence perpetrated by a male intimate partner (Appiah &
Cusack, 1999). Oftentimes, the physical violence that culminated in the
death of the wife was intended to control, “punish,” or “discipline” a
supposedly “errant” wife but escalated into a lethal action. Such
violence was often part of a chronic pattern of abuse that had
characterized the relationship for many months, or even years. It is
widely recognized within Ghanaian society that scores of Ghanaian
women are regularly victims of husbands' corporal violence for
“disobedience,” “rudeness,” or failure to perform household chores
and other “wifely duties” to the husbands' satisfaction. Such sublethal
assaults are often severe and lead to life-threatening injuries. For this
reason, any reasonable attempt to reduce the incidence of wife
murders in Ghana must begin with a concerted effort to eradicate all
forms of abuse by husbands against wives.
Perhaps one of the most notable findings to emerge from the data
analysis was the role of sexual dispute as an immediate contributing
factor in many cases of spousal homicide in Ghana. In five of the
seventy-two (6.9 percent) cases examined, a wife's active resistance to
the sexual demands of her husband culminated in violent confronta-
tions that ultimately caused the death of a spouse. Data from myriad
sources demonstrated that sexual intimacy is one of the major sources
of marital conflict in Ghana, primarily matters over when and how
much (see “Man Butchers Wife,” 2006; “Husband Shoots Wife,” 2006).
Based on traditional attitudes toward marriage and sexual intercourse,
many Ghanaian men feel that marriage confers on them an inalienable
right to have sexual intercourse with their wives on demand.
Husbands, thus, tend to be averse to rebuffs of their sexual advances.
Much of the sexual conflict between conjugal partners is also
attributable to attitudes toward male and female sexuality. Among
Ghanaians, it is commonly perceived that women are sexually passive,
while men are sexually active and dominant. Men must therefore use
physical force to conquer women's sexual passivity and resistance and
to kindle female sexual desire. Men's feeling of sexual entitlement to
wives and other sexual intimates is related to the male's role as the
major breadwinner of the family. Many men feel that as the economic
provider of the family, they are entitled to sex from their wives
whether or not their wives are prepared for, or desirous, of a sexual
encounter. Concurrently, many women feel that they have a moral
duty to satisfy the sexual needs of their husbands, regardless of their
own desires. Conflict emerges when men's sexual demands cannot be
satisfied by their partners. Growing media reports in Ghana indicate
that in recent years, women are more actively resisting husbands'
coercive sexual actions. News headlines such as the following have
become increasingly common: “Woman Bites Husband's Penis,” “Wife
Damages Her Man's ‘Man,’” “Wife Who Cut Husband's Genital,” and
“Husband Shoots Wife for Denying him Sex.”
The data revealed that some Ghanaian men who married or
planned to marry an additional wife suffered increased homicide risk
at the hands of their wives. As noted, polygyny is culturally
permissible among all ethnic groups in Ghana, while about 30 percent
of all Ghanaian men have two or more wives. Polygyny, however, can
elicit considerable hostility in women, particularly for the first wife
when the husband takes a second wife. These cases demonstrate that
this hostility can be of sufficient intensity to lead to homicidal acts. In
recent years, women in Ghana have been expressing disapproval of
polygyny. For example, various women's organizations have called for
the Ghanaian government to statutorily ban the practice of polygyny
and to criminalize plural marriages (see “One Man, One Wife,” 2005).
215
An interesting finding to emerge from this study was the large
number of uxoricides that were attributable to, or fueled by husbands'
suspicion of wifely infidelity. In these cases, the husband was motivated
by a sense of entitlement rooted in patriarchal notions of male
domination and control of the female partner. Due to the patriarchal
nature of Ghanaian society, many men are socialized to regard their
wives and other intimate partners as their personal property to be
controlled and dominated at their convenience. In practice, this
encourages excessive jealousy, stalking, and surveillance of women
and their spatial movements. Under these circumstances, many
Ghanaian men find it exceedingly difficult to accept separation or
divorce from their wives. Departing wives are then stalked and even
killed. Thus, in Ghana, as elsewhere, women who threaten to, or initiate
the termination of relationships with intimate partners are at greatest
risk for uxoricidal murder.
It should be noted, in conclusion, that some aspects of the spousal
homicide data analyzed for this study limited the conclusions that could
be drawn from this research. First, given the small number of cases
studied, the generalizability of the findings was limited. Second, the data
were derived from reports of spousal murder presented in a local daily
newspaper. As with most studies relying on newspaper reports, it was
possible that the Daily Graphic disproportionately focused on “high
amplitude” homicides or bizarre and unusual incidents “seen as news-
worthy because of their statistical deviance” (Paulsen, 2003 p. 292).
Despite these limitations, the study provided insights into spousal slayings
in Ghanaian society and offered an empirical contribution to the subject.
Notes
1. Also referred to in the literature as “partner homicide,” “couple
homicide,” “marital homicide,” “married-partner homicide,” and “mate
homicide.”
2. Official homicide data in Ghana were not classified into offense
categories such as neonaticides, infanticides, mariticides, siblicides,
uxoricides, etc. Besides specifying how many acts of murder, attempted
murder, and manslaughter occurred in each of the ten administrative
regions, no other categories were specified in official records.
Additionally, there was difficulty in obtaining actual homicide case
files. In order to review a particular homicide case file, it is necessary to
travel to the police station which has jurisdiction over the locality
where the crime occurred. There are currently 605 police stations and
thirteen police posts in the country.
3. The use of newspapers in the study of homicides is not new.
Chimbos (1998) used newspaper sources to study patterns of criminal
homicide in Greece. Websdale and Alvarez (1997) employed a content
analysis of newspapers in their study of homicide-suicides. News-
paper use in the study of homicide is acutely necessary in the
developing nations where severe restrictions are often placed upon
the release of official crime data, or where such data are not
consistently recorded or are generally unreliable.
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